For marking or identifying electrical components, in particular series terminals, different types of marking materials are used. The marking materials are, in particular, marking or identification plates, which are attached at predefined positions to the electrical components. For easy attachment of the marking or identification plates, groove-shaped plug-in recesses are usually formed in the housings of the electrical components or the series terminals, into which the marking plates can be inserted and plugged in. In addition, also marking materials are known, which are designed as adhesive labels or adhesive strips, so that the marking plates can be adhesively bonded onto the electrical components in the respective locations.
To create the marking materials, they are usually initially inserted as an unlabeled printing object, usually in card format, into a corresponding printer, for example an inkjet printer, a thermal transfer printer, a UV printer or a laser printer. The respectively required labeling of the marking material, which usually has a plurality of individual marking plates, is then typically carried out in the printers, so that the marking plates after printing first have to be separated into individual signs or strips. Subsequently, the installation of the individual marking plates on the individual components or series terminals, or on a terminal block made up from a plurality of series terminals situated one next to another, is carried out.
Since in particular series terminals are often installed in greater quantities on carrier rails, the installation of the individual identification plates is considerably time-consuming. For a manual installation, moreover, there is the risk that the identification plates are not correctly installed and plugged into the housing of the series terminals, so that the identification plates can retroactively detach. Moreover, there is the risk that the installer loses the individual identification plates during installation because of their relatively small dimensions.
In order to reduce the time required to install the identification plates or marking plates, automatic devices are known, with the aid of which individual identification plates can be picked-up and inserted into the corresponding plug-in recesses into the series terminals. Such a device for automatically installing identification plates is known from DE 10 2013 012 389 B4. The device, in particular, has a holding device for receiving an identification plate and a moveably mounted assembly stamp, with the aid of which an identification plate received by the holding device can be pressed into a groove-shaped plug-in recess at the series terminal.
Even though such a device for installing individual identification plates can reduce the time and effort for the installation, assigning the individual marking plates to the respective electrical components is associated with a relatively great effort. Additionally, the individual electrical components, in particular in the case of series terminals, are typically each provided with a plurality of identification plates, so that the correct assignment in this instance is also complex and prone to errors. In particular for symmetrically constructed series terminals, a faulty identification of individual connectors can result.